February 2002

S&W Triple Locks: Three New Tack-Driving, ‘Ancient’ Revolvers

Our view: S&W continues its reproduction of historic handguns with stellar results. If you want superb performance — and can stand the price tags — these wheelguns are worth the money.

In 1908 Smith & Wesson came out with a new cartridge and a new handgun, the combination of which was to set a new standard for finely built, high-performance handguns for at least the next half-century. The gun was officially called the New Century Hand Ejector, but was commonly referred to as the “Triple Lock,” because of a third lockup at the swing-out crane which augmented two other latches, one at the front of the ejector rod and the other at the rear of the cylinder.

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